InformationWeek

January 29, 2001

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Application Performance Management
The Well-Mannered Application

continued...page 2 of 3

By Steve Steinke, Network Magazine

More on application management:

sidebar:Performance-Measurement Standards

Costly Management (11/6/00)

Amazon Looks Outside For Systems-Management Tools (11/6/00)

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Applications that aren't amenable to meaningful performance measurements based on generic measurements can only be measured and controlled with the custom-programmed management approach. The disadvantage is that few client-server or n-tier applications have been instrumented in this fashion. Even companies that are prepared to devote skilled programming resources to developing custom management solutions are out of luck if the application wasn't created with management hooks and APIs. The other primary disadvantage of a custom approach is that skilled programming resources are rare, costly, hard to control, and usually slower than expected.

The traffic inference approach has the big advantage of not requiring programmatic intervention in the target application. Probes or agents deployed on the local network close to the user may also be the simplest approach in terms of the number of computers and connections that must be modified.

The biggest disadvantage of traffic inference is that it's limited to only the least common denominators of application performance. Specific application behaviors may not be detected. Furthermore, performance bottlenecks in the client may not be detected by these tools. The link between the probe and the user is something of a black hole for this method of data collection.

Finally, the accuracy of a probe-only system may be questionable because the best the performance-management software can do is make assumptions about the beginning and end of transactions and the makeup of packet flows.

The client agent approach has the greatest possible proximity to the user. A client agent can readily distinguish user "think time" from client processing delays. By noting the beginning and ending time of transactions, a client agent is the only incontestable source of information about the total round-trip delay and the final word on whether a transaction concluded successfully.

The most significant disadvantage of client agents is the disadvantage of application-specific clients in general. It's hard to deploy software in mass quantities. Some combination of operating-system versions, hardware, and application software will likely have installation and compatibility problems with the agent.

Agent software upgrades are painful and costly. Operating system-specific agents require deploying multiple versions, while Java-based agents may demand hardware upgrades to keep from degrading performance unacceptably. In addition, general-purpose agents may not be able to provide the level of detail that custom-programmed instrumentation can.

The vendor that has moved the closest to a management system focused on granularly measuring and controlling end-to-end business transactions and processes is Manage.Com Inc. The principal components of the Manage.Com performance-management platform Frontline e.M are the Frontline e.M Server, a dedicated Web server that serves as the central logic and data repository; e.Agents, Java-based applets that can be installed on clients and servers throughout the management domain; e.Registry, a Web site that contains updated service logic and agent configuration data; and manageXML, an XML dialect that supports the transport of update and configuration information among the components of the Frontline e.M system.

In December, Manage.Com released a set of development enhancements called Frontline Java Management Edition. These tools include a Java-management authoring kit and an extensible Java Application Adapter, which is designed to interact directly with pure Java applications, Enterprise JavaBeans, and applications developed in C and C++ (via the Java Native Interface).

Selected Application Performance- Testing Tools
BMC Software www.bmc.com/patrol	Patrol
Computer Associates www.ca.com/products/tng_application_response.htm	Application Response Option
Compuware www.compuware.com/products/ecosystems	EcoSystems
Concord Communications www.concord.com	eHealth
Dirig Software www.dirig.com	RelyENT xSpress
Hewlett-Packard www.managementsoftware.hp.com	OpenView VantagePoint
Lucent Technologies www.lucent.com/networkcare	VitalSuite
Manage.com www.manage.com	Frontline e.M
NetIQ www.netiq.com/products/network_performance	Pegasus
NetScout Systems www.netscout.com	ngenius
Tivoli www.tivoli.vom	Application Performance Management
DATA: NETWORK MAGAZINE

The Application Adapter uses techniques that Manage.Com calls Java Direct Connect to control and monitor transactions and processes with a minimum of custom coding. In many cases, there's no need to rewrite source code--it's sufficient to install new object classes. Because many Web-centric middleware applications, such as application servers, transaction monitors, application integration products, and content-management systems, are built on a Java platform, managing these key process components with Frontline e.M is greatly simplified.

Companies and service providers whose core applications are Java-based will be the largest target for the Java Management Edition, but the regular Frontline e.M platform satisfies most of the key requirements for managing Web-based business processes. It can instrument clients and servers, and collect Simple Network Management Protocol data from devices and probes, so managers have the option of drilling down anywhere along a transaction's round trip. It can provide real-time performance reports and alerts. The e.Registry site, combined with the e.Connect secure connectivity service, is a good solution to the problem of distributing software updates. And in the right circumstances, Java Direct Connect can provide the flexibility of writing and deploying custom code without the constraints of modifying existing code.

The major management platform vendors have all taken steps to facilitate customization of applications so performance is meaningfully measurable. Hewlett-Packard and Tivoli Systems Inc. have both contributed to the development of the Open Group's standard Application Response Measurement API.

HP's OpenView VantagePoint Performance Agent supports the ARM API, and the VantagePoint Performance Manager provides a graphical display of historical performance data, while the VantagePoint Performance Monitor provides real-time views of the performance of applications and their components. The HP OpenView Response Time Workbench is designed to customize application-specific client agents, while the MeasureWare Client Observer provides the basic monitoring framework for the agent.

Tivoli's Application Performance Management product offers three potential types of client instrumentation. Apps adapted for use with the ARM API can capture the time between programmed start points and end points. Client behavior such as new windows or changed URLs can also be related to transaction start points and end points.

Finally, a dummy client can be scripted to submit synthetic transactions that can be useful as yardsticks for traversing the network and complex application tiers. Information can be monitored and alerts can be processed by Tivoli management consoles.

Computer Associates provides an Application Response Option for both Unicenter TNG and NetworkIT. Support for commonly deployed software, such as Lotus Notes, SAP R/3, PeopleSoft, and Internet Explorer, is predefined. The system measures end-to-end response time, automatically creates baseline measurements, and can be extended to capture statistics for custom applications.

NetScout Systems Inc.'s roots are in the remote monitoring probe business. The company began moving down the performance-management path by measuring applications flows with its line of RMON2 probes.